Poll: Immigration debate deeply divides California Democrats
LA Times, ALEXANDRA E. PETRI: "Immigration and border security issues unify Republican voters while dividing Democratic voters in California, a statewide poll has found.
The findings of the new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll, co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, illustrate some of the political difficulties President Biden faces in dealing with the large number of unauthorized migrants crossing the U.S. southern border."
Poll: Anti-China rhetoric is unpopular with likely 2024 voters. Will candidates stop using it?
The Chronicle, KO LYN CHENG: "When a Texas man brutally stabbed a 6-year-old Asian child and attacked his family in March 2020, he admitted it was because he believed the family was responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. The rhetoric mirrored that of then-President Donald Trump, who had by that point labeled the disease a “foreign virus” and endorsed calling it the “China virus.”
In the lead-up to this year’s election, political observers say they expect increasing use of anti-China rhetoric by presidential candidates to score political points."
Costly and ‘unnecessarily complex’: Report blasts California water conservation plan
LA Tines, IAN JAMES: "In a scathing review, advisors to the state Legislature have found that California’s proposed regulations for urban water conservation would be costly, overly complicated and difficult to implement.
State water regulators have been developing regulations, as required under 2018 legislation, that would call for water suppliers in cities and suburbs to meet increasingly stringent targets for reducing water use between 2025 and 2035. The proposed rules are intended to help California adapt as climate change brings more intense droughts and puts growing strain on water supplies."
The 1994 Northridge quake was a shock. Here’s why the next one won’t be
LA Times, KAREN GARCIA, JON HEALEY: "Susan Hough remembers the violent shaking that jolted her and millions of other Southern Californians awake just after 4:30 a.m. 30 years ago.
“It was like a giant picked up my house and started shaking it back and forth in his fist,” said Hough, a geophysicist for the U.S. Geological Survey. She thought she heard glass breaking in her Pasadena home, “but when the dust settled, there were no broken windows and no broken furniture."
Here’s how long dry weather will last before rain returns to Bay Area
The Chronicle, ANTHONY EDWARDS:"Rain Tuesday night provided a preview of what’s to come this weekend, but in the meantime, the Bay Area should get a respite from the active weather.
A high-pressure system will build into the Bay Area on Wednesday and continue Thursday. High pressure is generally associated with quiet weather, causing the air to sink and dry out. Highs will be in the mid-50s to lower 60s Wednesday and Thursday, with lows in the 40s."
White and male college leadership fails to reflect California’s racial, ethnic diversity
EdSource, ASHLEY A. SMITH: "With some of the most racially and ethnically diverse student bodies in the country, California’s public community colleges and universities fail to mirror its students in teaching and leadership positions.
White men dominate the leadership positions within the University of California, California State University and California Community College systems, even as two-thirds of undergraduates across the state identify as Latino, Black, Asian or Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders, according to a new report released Tuesday by the Campaign for College Opportunity."
The number of families fleeing Oakland schools is spiking. Here’s what’s going on
The Chronicle, JILL TUCKER: "Families are leaving the Oakland classrooms in droves this school year, with nearly 1,000 students granted a transfer to another nearby district, a significant increase over years past. The numbers were likely boosted by Jewish families leaving the district, citing anti-Israel sentiments: " among teachers and staff that made them feel uncomfortable or unsafe, district officials said.
In the first semester alone, the 34,000-student district approved 950 requests for a transfer out, about 200 more than would be expected based on historic trends."
It’s official: Tech billionaires are taking their plan for a new California city to voters
The Chronicle, JK DINEEN: "After months of rampant speculation, divisive lawsuits and contentious debate, the Silicon Valley tech titans proposing to build a new city in Solano County will submit a ballot initiative Wednesday laying out everything from where the new community will be to guarantees on jobs, transportation and open space.
Then it will be up to the county’s voters to decide if they want to allow a dense urban city to sprout up on wide-open grazing land between Fairfield and Rio Vista."
READ MORE -- Plan for utopian Bay Area city was shrouded in secrecy. Now its wealthy backers want it on the ballot -- LA Times, JESSICA GARRISON
Dramatic change in one demographic is happening in California like nowhere else
The Chronicle, NAMI SUMIDA:"California is increasingly made up of people born in California.
According to recently released Census data collected in 2022, the share of California adults who were born in the state is 48%, up more than 5 percentage points from 2010, when the share was 43%. No other state had as large an increase in the share of native-born residents ages 18 and older during this period."
CALMatters, MANUELA TOBIAS: "Mobile home residents in California face an outsize risk of failing utility systems, flooding and fires as a result of infrastructure that frequently hasn’t been updated or repaired in decades.
In 1984, California passed a law to help remedy this: a loan program, paid into by the residents themselves, to buy and in later iterations, fix their parks."
Cupertino settles YIMBY housing lawsuit, agrees to ‘builder’s remedy’ penalty
BANG*Mercury News, GRACE HASE: "YIMBYs are celebrating a new settlement with the city of Cupertino that offers a shiny prize for housing advocates: the promise of more homes in the Silicon Valley enclave.
Last February, YIMBY Law and the California Housing Defense Fund slapped a dozen Bay Area jurisdictions, including Cupertino, with lawsuits over their failure to meet last year’s Jan. 31 state deadline for housing elements detailing how they plan to approach development in the next eight years. By 2031, the nine-county Bay Area needs to sign off on more than 441,000 new homes."